We finalized the drawing for blade clamping system. The drawings are posted here and in Crackle ATF Wiki. We will submit the drawings to the machine shop tomorrow.

         For each blade, the clamping system will consist of: 1)Steel base, 2)Steel pillar, 3) Steel top clamp, 4) Al knife edge top piece,5)Al knife edge bottom piece,and 6) Al end piece.

1) Steel base x1:   The steel base is 3"x3"x0.5" . It has 4 counter sunk holes that allow us to mount the steel pillar on it. It has 3" rails on both sides, so we can mount it on the table. Extra clamps can be used to hold the base on the table.

2) Steel pillar x1:   It is 5.5" height with 2"x2" square cross section.  There are 4 tapped 1/4-20 holes , 1" in depth, on the bottom for mounting it on the base. There are 2 tapped 3/8 , 1" in depth, on top for clamping two clamps along with the blade.

3) Steel top clamping piece x1, This will clamp the blade on the pillar.

4) Aluminum knife edge, top piece x1,

5) Aluminum knife edge, bottom piece x1: (4&5) The two knife edge pieces will be used for loading the mass block on the maraging blade tip. The explanation is written in this entry.

6) Aluminum end piece that holds the mirror mount on the blade tip x1: We want to have a steerable mirror for the IFO. So we need a mirror mount. The block will hold the mount and the blade tip together through screws. This piece is uploaded in the above entry.

 The assembly (without the blade and the mirror mount) is shown below.